NEW DELHI: Mumbai airport's latest international terminal boasts of a three kilometre long wall adorned with 7,000 artefacts from across the country. A slice of this gateway of sorts to Indian art is likely to go online soon and help passengers purchase replicas of some of the artefacts.

Passengers will be able to access the database on information iPads stationed at various locations close to the wall at T2 terminal and get in touch with the artists to place orders, a company executive said, adding that subsequently the database will also be available on the airport website's page titled 'Jaya He'.

Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the GVK-led consortium which envisaged the concept and commissioned the works for the Rs 5,500 crore terminal is building an online database of the 1,500 contributing artists.

"The intention is to form a link between the various passengers who admire the artworks at the airport and the artists, perhaps not so known, who have made them," said an MIAL spokesman. "With 'Jaya He', we hope to provide the artisans with a unique platform to showcase their arts and crafts, many of which are dying out due to lack of opportunities. The idea behind the art collection at T2 was not just to showcase the arts and crafts of India but also to engage artisans from all corners of our country with the larger objective of preserving the cultural heritage of India."

Conceived by MIAL managing director GV Sanjay Reddy and implemented by well-known scenographer Rajeev Sethi, the collection comprises a wide range of art ranging from the ancient - some of the works date back to the 10th century -to the contemporary. Here gabled roofs or 'kodis' of Kerala meet totems of Nagaland, GR Iranna is seen alongside Gulam Mohammed Sheikh and ancient woodwork stands a few feet away from structures made with e-waste.

A 40-member team of art conservators and restorers worked on the acquired artefacts, often damaged, for about two years before setting them up for display.

The collection is divided into two central themes - 'Layered narratives' at the arrivals hall and 'Thresholds of India' at the departures hall. The first category showcases varied interpretations of Mumbai by 24 artists, including Vivan Sundaram, Baiju Parthan, Manu Parekh and Riyas Komu.

One of the works is the depiction of Akshay Rajpurkar of India on a google map, with the structure created out of e-waste and blue buttons.

The other is a machine where silhouettes of common men are seeing being transferred on a conveyor belt and coming out as clones of Amitabh Bachchan, a depiction of one of India's foremost superstars and a dream career for many young people coming to the Mumbai-based film industry.

'Thresholds of India' uses works of art built with wood, glass, ceramics, and more. The artefacts in this collection include gates, windows, pillars, totems, terracotta statues, lamps, water spouts, chariots, masks, quaint beds, painted theatre curtains, etc. Notable among them are the paintings from the Patuas, a community of village storytellers in West Bengal that also paints pictures on coarse pieces of cloth of Hindu gods and goddesses.

The paintings called patas have been depicted on the art wall. Various objects of art have been crafted from cow dung and other recyclable materials that describe the travails and triumphs from everyday lives of women.

Then there are colourful quilts (Gudaris) made by women residing in the slums around the domestic airport in Mumbai.

Jaya He's curator Sethi engaged craftsmen from Bengal and Orissa -patachitra painters from Midnapore, wood-carvers from Nutangram, clay and fibre sculptors from Krishnanagar, electric light artists from Chandannagar and a contemporary woodcut artist, Rajesh Deb, in telling a story of the East from its smallest rural town to its greatest metropolis.

There is a montage of historical theatre screens designed by Anil Naik and Moreshwar Patil that pays homage to the dying art of painting sceneries which were used as backdrops in Marathi theatre and photography studios.

Actor-director Shekhar Kapoor has contributed to the making of 'Jal Tarang', colourful water spouts which are sonically designed to emit sounds of the seven notes in Indian classical music when touched.

Fashion designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla contributed to design elements like phulkari roofs, lotus chandeliers and rangoli patterns on floors. Spread across 4.4 million sq ft, the T2 terminal is part of the Rs 12,500 crore airport modernisation project. The terminal, currently open to international passengers, is likely to open to domestic flyers next year.